I’ve always wanted to have kids young, I felt that by having them at a younger age I would be able to easily keep up with them and be a hip, fun mom. I got my wish now at 24, with an almost 3 year old little girl, I just last month had my son. I had always heard the complaints women had about getting pregnant then having trouble losing all the baby weight afterwards. I never really worried because I felt being young would make it so much easier. Oh, how naïve and wrong I was.

Not being super skinny normally, I’ve always been at a weight where I was happy and felt good about myself. After having my daughter, my stomach looked like a war zone. Instead of my normal outfits, I took to wearing loose clothes that did nothing but make me look like I was still pregnant. Depressed and busy being a new mom, I didn’t do anything about my weight gain, I ate what I wanted, gained more weight and tried to forget that I weighed more than I ever had before.

My family started pressuring me about doing something to start losing the weight, which only added to the frustration I was feeling about my body and weight. My family has always been the type that cares to an extreme about their weight. They’re constantly dieting and nagging me that maybe I need to start watching my weight too. After having my daughter, and letting myself stay unhappy at the weight I was, I gave into my family’s criticism and joined Jenny Craig. Over the course of about five months I lost 25 pounds, and even thought I only joined to placate my family, I ended up realizing that I can achieve what I (not my family) want my ideal weight to be.

After working hard to lose all the baby weight and become the old confident person I used to be, I found out that I was pregnant again. Again, I let my family bully me, telling me I needed to diet with this pregnancy to make sure I did not gain as much weight as before. Instead of giving in and letting their words depress me, I let go of any worries for those nine months and put all my focus on having a healthy son, rather than how much weight I was gaining.

Now, after having my son, my perspective has changed. I have come to accept my body. I have realized that if I feel the desire, I can and will do something to have the body I want and restore the confidence I lost. I realized that if I could lose the weight before, then with a little bit of work I could do it again. I used to let my family, and even television and magazine, influence how I felt about myself. I used to believe that at 24 I was no longer sexy because I had sacrificed my body to have my children. Now, I can proudly say that, yes I have had children, and I honestly love every stretch mark I got because of them.